With the huge caveat that this is an unconfirmed report, Muhammad Adham al-Hamd, the General Secretary of the Union of Political Prisoners and Detainees in Iraq has issued a statement saying that,

“the US occupation administration in Iraq relies on systematic rape, torture, and sadistic treatment of Iraqi women prisoners in its prison camps in the country.”

“Muhammad Adham al-Hamd made the comments in a statement regarding reports that confirmed the presence of large numbers of women in the American-run prison camps – women who are detained solely to be raped and abused in order to bring pressure upon their husbands, brothers, sons or fathers.
Al-Hamd declared that the women prisoners are subjected to strip searchs, torture, rape, and psychological and physical humiliation by the police and prison administrators. Their clothing is removed and they are deprived of food and water for days in order to break their will.”

While this has not been confirmed, it is consistent with other reports of how women have been imprisoned and abused in detention that have surfaced since the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and should be immediately investigated.

6 Responses to “Report on Detention/Abuse of Women in Iraqi Prison Camps”

Disgusting, abhorrent and unsurprising. Remember John Yoo and this exchange?

Cassel: If the president deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?

Yoo: No treaty.

Cassel: Also no law by Congress — that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo…

Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.

How about Seymour Hersh on Abu Ghraib? Children tortured to pressure their mothers:

‘Some of the worst things that happened that you don’t know about. OK? Videos. There are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at [Abu Ghraib], which is about 30 miles from Baghdad — 30 kilometers, maybe, just 20 miles, I’m not sure whether it’s — anyway. The women were passing messages out saying please come and kill me because of what’s happened. And basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children, in cases that have been [video] recorded, the boys were sodomized, with the cameras rolling, and the worst above all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking.’

The sooner these people are in prison where they belong the better for the civilised world. Keep up the good fight.

it is sad and frightening that femimist movements and women in general seek to fight “soft wars” on gender. gender struggles are at their most vocal in urban areas in “peaceful” environments. one would have thought the gender battles would heve been fought at the fronts where discrimination is at its worst. rape as a weapon of war is understated and and under-engaged in almost all military fronts. one could almost believe that gender wars are selective and choices are made on sounding politically correct at different points and time. rape as a weapon of war is serious but in certain areas like Palestine or Iraq or Sudan it is somehow seen as a lesser crime. is there perhaps a race and perhaps geographical bias equation in this approach. if Iraqis raped American women in Washington would it be a greater or lesser crime than the current status quo. would there be a murmur for “evidence” or would there be an outcry at inception followed by a stronger and stringent search for evidence.

racism at an attitudinal level is a disturbing thread that seems to run through the feminist movements and political correctness a type of insanity. if gender wars are to be fought, and they are wars, they would need to be approached with an air of openness and introspection. the current appoach bears echoes of the racist south where the rape of a black slave woman was deemed less that the rape of a white woman until and unless the approach is in the context of equality, the battles will yield less results and the discrimantion perpetuated in fact it may well be an address of the face of the problem not a solution of the problem itself at a principle level
warmest regards
rassool

I SUBMIT THAT OUR COUNTRIES SHOULD LEAVE THESE WARS & LEARN FROM THE EVENTS NOT TO TAKE PART IN THE WAR CRIMES OF USA.

OUR LEADERS WHO COMMITTED TO THESE WAR’S & ITS METHODS (RAPE;TORTURE;DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY OF OPPONENTS & FAMILY MEMBERS; & REASONS FOR THE WAR, SHOULD ALL BE TAKEN BEFORE OUR COURTS FOR TRIAL & SENTENCED TO BE HANDED OVER TO THE PEOPLE OF THE NATIONS THEY HAVE HAD US ATTACK , FOR FALSE REASONS .

THE SECURITY PEOPLE WHO HAVE GIVEN ADVICE MADE PUBLIC THAT IRAQ HAD WMD SHOULD BE GIVEN TRIAL & GIVEN OVER TO IRAQ OR OTHER COUNTRY INVADED FOR PUNISHMENT.

THAT IS BECAUSE BESIDES PUBLICLY SAYING IRAQ HAD WMD , THEY HAD TO HAVE PRIVATELY GIVEN ADVICE TO USA & OTHER GOVERNMENTS THAT IN FACT IRAQ DID NOT HAVE SAID WMD … AS OTHERWISE USA ETC. WOULD NOT HAVE DARED TO ATTACK.